His Miracle Bride

by Marion Lennox

The grip on Shanni’s hand tightened still further.

  ‘I won’t watch,’ Pierce said. Flatly. ‘Okay, I’m off to find dill pickles. You want me to pick you up in three hours?’

  ‘At lunch time,’ Wendy whispered. And there was an unspoken invitation in her words.

  ‘I’ll meet you for lunch, then, shall I?’ Pierce asked.

  ‘Great. Here at twelve.’ But Shanni felt odd. There was seemingly nothing she could say without tension. She didn’t understand it. ‘Bye,’ she said, because she couldn’t think of anything more erudite.

  ‘Bye,’ said Wendy and tugged her forward towards the hairdresser.

  They walked towards the shops. But Shanni was aware that Pierce was watching them until they disappeared from sight.

  They had a brilliant morning. Pure fun. First the Dolphin Bay hairdresser gave Wendy a fantastic elfin haircut and then, inspired, suggested streaks. An hour later Wendy emerged, her copper red hair beautifully streaked with lighter blonde highlights. It might have been over the top for an eleven-year-old, but Wendy had watched in the mirror as her new hairstyle was blow-dryed and her expression made it supremely worthwhile.

  ‘I’m pretty,’ Wendy whispered, and the hairdresser beamed.

  ‘I’ve had to cancel two clients this morning,’ she confided to Shanni. ‘But the minute I see one of the castle kids come through this door, I drop everything. The whole town understands and nothing’s ever given me such pleasure.’

  Then they hit the shops, and here the attitude was the same. Wendy was a castle kid, therefore she’d be treated as a princess. Clothes were magically discounted. Extras were added. The lady in the dress shop sent her daughter running to the haberdashery to find matching ribbons for Wendy’s new haircut. The youth in the shoe shop was serving someone else when they came in. He barely spared them a glance, but the customer he was serving, an old fisherman, lumbered to his feet, gave the kid a clout across his ears and beamed across at them.

  ‘No, you take the seat, young lady,’ he told Wendy. ‘You kids come first in this town-Jason here just hasn’t realized it.’

  They were helped every step of the way, and when she and the beautiful new Wendy-a Wendy dressed in a tiny, bouncy skirt and crop top, gorgeous bright red sandals, and with curls that gleamed-purchased double flavoured ice-creams and sat on the wharf waiting for Pierce, Shanni thought every person in town was finding a reason to peek.

  She felt proud. This was a fantastic community, she thought. Surely the community round Two Creek Farm could be the same?

  And then Pierce was pulling up nearby and she found she was holding her breath. Wendy had stilled. Her ice cream was held out so she wasn’t dripping on her new clothes, but she was no longer licking.

  What Pierce thought mattered to Wendy, Shanni thought, and she watched Pierce stride towards them and decided, yep, it mattered to her, too. Once the shadows were dispelled, Wendy would love this man.

  Shanni could, too.

  Wrong. Shanni already did.

  Dumb. She was an irresponsible pest. She had no part in this embryonic family. What she was feeling was a romantic yearning started at ten and never squashed. It had to be squashed now.

  Meanwhile, she watched Pierce come towards them and she found she wasn’t breathing.

  Pierce stopped dead. Thirty feet away, he put his hand to his eyes as if shading them from the sun. As if unsure what he was seeing.

  ‘It’s Shanni,’ he said, sounding awed. ‘But…is that Wendy?’

  Wendy giggled. It was a tiny, really nervous giggle, but it was a giggle for all that.

  ‘You’re beautiful,’ Pierce said and it was exactly right. Not an overblown exclamation. Just a simple stating of facts.

  Wendy smiled. She did a coy eyelash flutter. Her smile turned to a beam.

  ‘I’m so proud of you,’ Pierce said, and he walked the final few steps and looked down at her. He didn’t even glance at Shanni. Which was great. There was no conspiratorial look saying ‘haven’t we done the right thing!’. It was purely between Wendy and Pierce.

  ‘Can I hold your ice-cream?’ Shanni said, guessing what was coming, and then as Wendy didn’t answer she took it anyway.

  And she was right. Pierce was lifting Wendy high and swinging her round in his arms, so fast that Wendy squealed, a delighted kid’s squeal, and everyone watching beamed and beamed.

  Shanni blinked.

  This was nothing to do with her, she thought frantically. She was out of here.

  ‘Lunch,’ Pierce said, setting Wendy down but tucking her against him. ‘Unless you’re full of ice-cream.’

  ‘My ice-cream’s melted,’ Wendy said.

  Shanni looked down at her hand. She’d forgotten the ice-cream. Yes, it had melted. A blue-heaven-and-raspberry ice-cream was oozing down her hand.

  ‘Oh, yum.’

  ‘Somewhere special for lunch,’ Pierce said.

  ‘Fish and chips on the beach?’

  ‘Not today,’ Pierce told them. ‘There’s a great little restaurant up near the lighthouse. We took Ruby there the day of the castle opening. They have champagne.’

  ‘Champagne,’ Wendy said cautiously.

  ‘We need to toast a new start,’ Pierce said, smiling lazily at her. ‘Starting today. But first we need to find Shanni a tap. She appears to be more than a little bit sticky.’

  So they found a tap, and then they walked along the cliff path to the lighthouse, Wendy in the middle, one hand holding Shanni’s, the other holding Pierce’s. It felt…weird.

  Pierce had booked. It was a Saturday so the small café was filled with tourists but they were shown to the best table in the house. It had a view seemingly all the way to America. Bench seats were piled high with overstuffed cushions, and bright-striped curtains and wind chimes were everywhere. The place looked like some sort of Middle Eastern harem. Wendy’s jaw was down round her ankles, and when the waiter poured champagne into gorgeous crystal flutes she was almost pop-eyed.

  ‘You’re too young for champagne,’ Pierce told her. ‘And you probably won’t like it anyway. But it’s an important drink for an important toast.’ He stood up, raising his glass. ‘Here’s to a job well done,’ he told Wendy. ‘You’ve kept your brothers and sisters safe. You’ve taken care of your mum. You’ve fought off your shadows. This toast is to safety. It’s to say you can relax now; you can go back to being a kid. Because I’m doing the caring and I won’t let you down. I promise.’

  ‘I’ll drink to that,’ Shanni said, and stood up and beamed down at Wendy. She felt surreal, like things were moving without her. ‘Our brave Wendy.’

  ‘Our beautiful Wendy,’ Pierce said, and clinked his glass. Then, as Wendy bravely clinked and sipped and wrinkled her nose, he grinned. ‘Before we let you at the lemonade, here’s another toast, our Wendy,’ he said. ‘Here’s to Shanni as well, for she braved the bull and more. She braved the ladies of the Craggyburn supermarket. Well done, Shanni.’

  It sounded like a conclusion. Now I can bow out, Shanni thought.

  But she smiled and clinked her glass. The waiters came and replaced Wendy’s champagne with red lemonade. ‘How can you like champagne better than this?’ Wendy demanded incredulously, and Pierce smiled, and so did Shanni, but Shanni was having trouble making her smile work.

  The meal was fantastic. They perused the amazing menu and then somewhat shamefacedly admitted to each other that really they wouldn’t mind the fish and chips. So out came the restaurant’s version of the humble fish and chips. It was a seafood feast, a vast platter of tiny flathead tails in crispy batter, fresh prawns, juicy scallops under a bed of curling twists of lemon, oysters opened in front of their eyes, mountains of crunchy French fries.

  They ate until they thought they might burst, and then they sat back contentedly and watched the coming and going of boats from the harbour, and Shanni thought, this is paradise.

  ‘I think it’s time for a swim,’ Pierce said at last as stillness descended on them and drowsiness
took over. ‘That is, if we’re not so heavy we sink to the bottom with no trace.’

  Now. She had to do it now.

  ‘I’m leaving this afternoon,’ Shanni said.

  There was a stunned silence.

  ‘Leaving,’ Pierce said cautiously.

  ‘You can’t leave,’ Wendy said. ‘Where…where are you going?’

  ‘I’m going to visit my friend in Sydney.’

  ‘Who?’ Pierce said.

  ‘Jules.’

  ‘I didn’t think you had any friends.’

  ‘Hey, I was brought up in this country,’ she said with as much dignity as she could manage. ‘Just because I’ve been away for the last few years…’

  ‘You don’t have any money.’

  ‘I have enough.’

  ‘What’s enough?’

  ‘That’s none of your business.’ She swallowed. ‘Though if you’d like to pay me for the last four days that’d be very welcome.’

  ‘Of course I’ll pay, but-’

  ‘You can’t go,’ Wendy said, horrified. ‘We want you to stay.’

  ‘I know,’ Shanni said ruefully. She hated doing this; she just hated it. But, sitting between them, she knew she must. For Wendy was already looking at her with trust-and with something deeper. She didn’t want to hurt Wendy for the world. To stay here for any longer, to start a relationship she couldn’t continue…She couldn’t. To leave fast, when the glories of the castle were still before them, was possible. To stay any longer would be selfish.

  And there was Pierce. She was falling deeper and deeper in love with them all, she thought desperately, but especially she was falling in love with Pierce, and there was no way Pierce would let that lead to any soppy happy-ever-after ending. She was a nuisance. She had to get out of here.

  ‘You heard that phone call last night,’ Pierce said, his eyes not leaving her face.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, and jutted her chin.

  ‘Shanni, I didn’t mean it.’

  ‘No, but it’s true. I’m superfluous.’ She took a deep breath. She had to do this. She had to be the strong one. ‘Pierce, I want to tell Ruby about these kids.’

  ‘You can’t.’

  ‘I can.’ In truth she was in territory she didn’t understand, but more and more she didn’t have a choice. ‘I know you don’t want to bother her, but believe me the longer you keep this from her the more she’ll be hurt. She’s already unbelievably hurt that you married and had Bessy without telling her. You’re not going to be able to keep things from her any longer.’

  She fought for another breath and then turned her attention to Wendy. ‘You know, you guys need a proper housekeeper. Not someone like me who doesn’t know the first thing about what kids need. Someone who’ll love you to bits. Pierce has a lovely old foster mother called Ruby who needs to meet you all. Ruby’s like any other grandma-she’d be caring for you in a minute-but I agree, she’s too old now to take you on. But if there’s one thing Ruby’s good at it’s networking. She’ll find you a housekeeper. She’ll be vetted from every angle possible, like you should have vetted me, and you’ll be able to get on with your lives.’

  ‘Shanni, you can’t.’ Pierce sounded horrified.

  ‘I can tell her. Tell your brothers I did it,’ she said. ‘Sorry, Pierce, but I’m Ruby’s niece. Some secrets can’t be kept in families and this is one of them.’

  ‘You have no right…’

  ‘Maybe I don’t, but I’m doing it anyway.’ She rose, feeling shaky. She knew she had to do this because, even though it was tearing her in two now, how much harder would it be if she left it longer?

  ‘Wendy, I’m your friend,’ she said, looking down at the stricken little face and flinching. How could she do this? How could she not do this? If she was hurting Wendy now, how much more so if she wasn’t honest? ‘When you leave the castle I’ll come to the farm and see you all. I promise. I’ll do the housekeeper thing-I’ll fill the house with food and make sure things are okay. I’ll see you that day, and I’ll see you any time I can find the opportunity. And I’ll write to you, Wendy.’

  ‘It’s not the same,’ Wendy muttered.

  ‘No, but I was your temporary housekeeper,’ she said softly. ‘My job here is done.’

  The journey back to the castle was made in silence. Shanni stared straight ahead. She’d insisted Wendy sit up front with Pierce. She felt small and insignificant in the back seat-and mean.

  She’d hurt Wendy. The thought tore her in two. But she looked at the rigid set of Pierce’s shoulders and thought, what else was she to do? She had to walk away-if not run.

  They pulled into the castle forecourt and sat for a moment, as if each was reluctant to get out.

  ‘They’ll be waiting for you on the beach,’ Shanni said gently to Wendy. ‘Won’t they, Pierce?’

  ‘They were planning lunch on the beach when I left,’ Pierce said. ‘They’ve set up a cabana for shade, and they looked set there for the next month.’

  ‘Then you need to get your swimmers on and join them.’

  ‘I want you to come,’ Wendy whispered.

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘You mean you won’t,’ Pierce said.

  ‘That’s right,’ she whispered. ‘I’m mean, selfish…’

  ‘I didn’t mean-’

  ‘You know very well why I’m doing this,’ she snapped. ‘Don’t make it any harder.’

  He didn’t reply. Shanni saw his hands clench on the steering wheel, so hard his knuckles turned white.

  ‘Fine,’ he said at last. ‘Wendy, let’s get our swimmers.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘We have to learn to stick together,’ Pierce said harshly. ‘Shanni’s not part of our family.’

  Ouch. But it was true.

  ‘Wendy, I love you lots,’ she said. ‘I’ll come down to the beach and say goodbye.’

  She climbed out of the car and fled into the castle before they could say another thing.

  In the movies packing was done fast. She’d seen it. The cuckolded husband storming in, seizing his suitcase, throwing in a handful of shirts, slamming the lid and saying, ‘I’ll be back for the final stuff later.’

  Shanni, however, was not a storming kind of person. She was actually a really messy person. She opened her suitcase and stared at the room and tried to figure out where to start.

  She’d only been here twenty-four hours. Hardly time to make herself at home.

  Damn, she was crying. She never cried. Never, ever.

  She sobbed.

  Finally she hauled herself together-a little-and marched down to the bathroom to find tissues.

  Queen Victoria looked astonished. And even more disapproving.

  ‘Yeah, I’m breaking my heart over five kids and a guy I’ve known less than a week. Dumb, dumb, dumb.’

  No answer. Well, what did she expect? ‘You were protected from this sort of thing,’ she told the queen. ‘Married young, one baby after another…

  ‘You still broke your heart, though,’ she whispered, thinking back to history at school, to the stories of the abyss of misery Victoria had fallen into after the death of Albert.

  ‘Yeah, well, you should have found a career you could throw yourself into. Like I have.’

  Didn’t Queen of England count as a career? And Shanni didn’t have a career. Thanks to Mike she had nothing, and now thanks to Pierce she had less than nothing-but a cracked heart…

  ‘I thought you couldn’t possibly fall in love this fast,’ she told Victoria, sniffing hard. ‘I was wrong.’

  ‘Shanni?’

  She stilled. It was Pierce, calling from below stairs. ‘Where are you?’ he yelled.

  ‘Talking to Vicky.’

  There was a moment’s silence, and then the sound of the stairs being taken two or three treads at a time.

  The bathroom door was locked. She and QueenVic were safe.

  ‘Come out,’ he called.

  ‘Why aren’t you at the beach?’

  ‘I
took Wendy down and came back.’

  ‘Did they like her hairdo?’

  ‘They loved it. They’re currently making a sandcastle, modelling it on Kirsty. Seeing Kirsty’s nine months pregnant it’s some sandcastle. Shanni, come out.’

  ‘I’m busy.’

  ‘Talking to Victoria?’

  ‘You think I’m crazy?’

  ‘Hell, no,’ he told her. ‘Everyone in this damned castle finds a confidante somewhere. Susie told me she’s sure Ernst and Eric were marriage counsellors in a former life.’

  ‘Ernst and Eric?’

  ‘The suits of armour at the foot of the stairs.’

  She’d forgotten. ‘Right.’

  ‘Come out?’

  ‘I don’t want to.’

  ‘You sound younger than Abby.’

  ‘Well, then. I’m younger than Abby and a damned nuisance.’

  ‘Shanni, I’m so sorry you heard that conversation last night.’

  ‘So am I,’ she snapped, and hauled open the door. Which was a mistake. She’d thought her anger could protect her, at least giving her room to get from the bathroom to the privacy of her bedroom. But as soon as she saw him…

  ‘You’ve been crying,’ he said, and he put his hands on her shoulders.

  ‘I have hayfever,’ she said with as much dignity as she could muster. ‘I’m allergic to aspidistra. Tell Queen V it’s her fault.’

  ‘I don’t want you to go.’

  ‘I have to.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’m falling in love with…the kids.’

  He hesitated. Then, ‘Wendy’s breaking her heart.’

  ‘I’ve been with her less than a week. I’m a friend. I’ll get over it.’ She paused. ‘I mean, she’ll get over it,’ she amended.

  ‘So you feel the same?’

  ‘About the kids, maybe, yes,’ she snapped. ‘They’re fantastic. ‘You’re really lucky.’

  ‘Lucky…’

  ‘Only you don’t see that. You’re too busy trying to be self-contained.’

  ‘I only know that the kids think you’re wonderful.’

  ‘So you want me to stay so you can take even more of a back seat. I don’t think so.’

  ‘It’s not just the kids.’

  She held her breath.

  ‘Look, Shanni, I…’